Tips for Increasing Your Fanbase
Now that you have some strategies for success on streaming platforms, it’s time to drive your future audience there.
Use data to find your fans
Data resources, such as the Pew Research Center, help you hone in on where your audience spends time online. As an example, if you’re targeting a mature audience, you better be marketing on Facebook, and not Instagram, because only 8% of adults in the U.S. over 65 are Insta-friendly. If you’re after young adults, you’ll need a Youtube channel, because 91% of people ages 18-29 in the U.S. actively use the site, while 85% of U.S. teens ages 13-17 use Youtube.
Competitors like China’s TikTok—a short-form interactive video app downloaded over 1 billion times as of early 2019—are quickly emerging as critical ways for new music artists to connect with young, global audiences. The platform is specifically geared to musicians because most of the challenges center around dancing. Can you get your track in the hands of young creators there? When a meme (or challenge) on TikTok featuring your music goes viral, you have the potential to get discovered, because each person who remixes a TikTok challenge is exposed to your music. Just recently, TikTok made Old Town Road into a viral meme and skyrocketed it to the number one spot on the Billboard Hot.
Take cues from the pros
Once you identify the best social media platforms for music or your brand, look to successful artists in your genre to kickstart your social media presence. “Indie artists can ask themselves, “Who is my potential fan?” If you’re a DJ, go to Skrillex, go to David Guetta, look at where they are posting, what their hashtags are, and replicate it,” shared Count Zero. “Don’t reinvent the wheel until you have a following.” Once you have momentum, build on your brand identity and generate content that supports your brand.
Find your differentiators
“Many people make the mistake of wanting to connect with everyone. Instead focus on your special market,” shared NFL in London podcast co-creator Wade McElwain. “Identify what makes you stand out. Figure out five critical keywords or niche things that make your audience and brand. For us, some important keywords are NFL, London, and North American Sport in London. This helps people find and connect with us.”
Just starting out? Read our guide to defining your online brand.
Create content that supports your mission
On social media, you’re building a brand that encompasses more than just your music or podcast. You’re conveying a lifestyle or broader mission your audience can connect and identify with. If you’re still fleshing out how to determine your content strategy, this simple content strategy guide will set you on the path to success. You might create a weekly playlist or turn one of your most relatable lyrics into a meme to artfully and strategically feed the social media beast. Or you may want to lean into your own personality by hopping on your Instagram Stories for an AMA (ask me anything). The right type of content should help you find new fans and create deeper connections with your current followers.
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Convert followers into fans
Like any online business, you want to take steps to convert followers to buy your product. In addition to funneling listeners to paid subscription platforms, funnel listeners to a website where you can add them to a mailing or advertise merchandise and concert tickets. Consider hosting a giveaway in exchange for collecting emails. Then use that list to let your fans know when you have a show or new episode up.
Don’t forget to give back
Conversion requires interaction. “Beyond getting positive feedback on social media, to make fans, you still need to do guerrilla footwork. Pay attention to people who already love your music,” recommended Baird. “For diehard fans online, send a sticker, a t-shirt, or a download to a free song. The diehard fans are the ones who will push for your success. They will tell their friends, and since they’re friends, they’ll have things in common (you) and you will go viral organically.”
Most of all, stay true to your art. “If you believe in yourself, don’t give up. This might be the most saturated market, but it is also the most opportunity-filled market there’s ever been. There are no rules. You can maintain a level of integrity but you also have to remember it’s a competition and everyone has a voice,” encouraged Baird. “Anyone can record from their camera phone and the quality will be listenable. Just go out there and do it. Do something original.”
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